That’s Right Nate

I have to hand it to Sarah Palin.  Speaking to a crowd that organizers estimated at well over 250,000 in Arizona today, the former Alaskan governor dismissed Harry Reid like he was an Alaska State Trooper and she was still running the Kodiak State.  Palin, who is perhaps best known for firing herself last year to promote her book and her new Alaska reality show, let Harry Reid know in no uncertain terms, “You’re fired.”

Tensions between Republicans and Democrats have been strained since the 2008 election left no party with a mandate for their own agenda for the first time in 8 years, but as Palin assured the crowd, “what we have here is a difference of opinion, but that’s OK because that’s nothing that a good old fashioned election can’t fix.”

Like many Americans, I would love to see the American people given a chance to vote for Sarah Palin.  I don’t see anyway  that such a knowledgeable and charismatic leader could fail to sway the American people, but unfortunately with Obama as President we are left with only these infrequent speeches to rally us.

Although Palin headlined the event, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons was equally eloquent in railing against the big spending Obama-Reid-Pelosi gravy train and in favor of the kind of family values economic conservatism that have been the hallmark of his time as Nevada Governor.

The optimism throughout the crowd of 500,000 was palpable and one speaker actually called it “a Woodstock you’ll remember”.   Perhaps, the keynote for the day came from Frank Helms of San Diego who said “”I don’t want anything bad to happen to Harry except for him to lose his job.  I don’t think he’s a bad man. He just ended up carrying Obama’s water and that’s gonna do him in.”

The amazing spirit of peace and harmony this afternoon was shared by many others.   Some people said they hoped Obama and Pelosi would die peacefully in their sleep while others simply wished for a long illness that incapacitate the Democrat leaders and forced them to resign.  To see a million people filled with patriotism and optimism is something that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.

To paraphrase Sarah Palin, I have seen the future of politics in this country and I am happy to report that it is overwhelming white, Southern, and middle-aged.  I left behind my 3 day stay at the Tea Party National Convention feeling like I was leaving summer camp, but at the same time hopeful for the future.   My fellow tea party patriots and I had an amazing time and the price tag of over $1,000 now seems like a paltry sum to be at the center of a grassroots movement so strong that corporate sponsors like The Heritage Foundation and Freedomworks had no choice, but to sponsor.

Sarah Palin gave the keynote for Saturday night looking resplendent with a new hair style that wouldn’t have been out of place on the drummer for Winger or any other hair metal band of 15 years ago.   She came to speak to the people and she didn’t need a fancy teleprompter.  Sarah Palin was able to connect with her audience the old fashioned way, with spontaneity and a hand full of crib notes.   Her talk was full of passion and inspired the entire room, but what I remember first was when she talked about how she reacted to her ticket losing the Presidential Election.   Rather than dwelling on her defeat, she asked herself what she could do to best help this country moving forward and that’s when she resigned from public office.  Throughout the speech, Sarah never let us forget she was a mom.  This was a woman who was almost the female Joe Biden, but she still managed to throw in references to her children Piper, Yeti, and Trig.

Yesterday, ironically, would have been Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday.   I believe it’s a nationally tragedy that we will regret for many years to come that we did not cryogenically freeze him when we had the chance.   Ronald Reagan was a national treasure and he is sincerely missed.

Today is the Super Bowl and it’s very easy to get caught up in the excitement of the big game, but let’s remember the real meaning of today–a child was born in humble circumstance so that he could one day save us all.   Let’s not forget to salute Tim Tebow on this day of all days.   My prediction for the game is that the Colts will beat the Saints 38-17.   I just think they are the more God fearing team.

A literary triumph  ****

I hate reading.   Books are an outdated art form that should have died off in the 1950s with the advent of television, but somehow they keep making them and saps keep buying them.   Going Rogue is an exception to this rule.   Her book, along with the Bible, are the only 2 books that one need ever own.   Sarah’s story is at once powerful and touching, revealing a strong mind and a dynamite sense of humor beneath her homespun charm.  I give this book a very solid 4 stars and urge everybody to not only buy this book, but keep an eye out for Sarah’s tour so that you can get it signed as well.   The crowds turning out so far have been truly impressive as well–very much like a Harry Potter release, but without all that black magic and devil worship.

I have not actually read this book, and attempts to coax my daughter to ghost read it for me fizzled when she balked at a $50 bribe.   However, as I look at reviews from other sources, I’m sure that this is an outstanding work.  Finally! we get to hear her own words, fully – unedited without the slanderous spin as only Lynn Vincent could tell it.   Vincent is an amazingly gifted writer, but the words and meaning are pure Palin.  It’s very difficult for me to talk about actual incidents in the book without actually reading it, but I am sure they are powerful and moving. I have read in other reviews that she agrees in the book with my contention that FDR’s liberal policies caused the Great Depression.

Liberals hate Sarah Palin because they know that she represents every woman and they know that they have nothing to counter her with.  Her long and distinguished career in public office from Wasilla Mayor to almost finishing a term as Governor of Alaska to almost becoming Vice-President is clearly showing that the glass ceilings feminists have been claiming for so long don’t really exist.   It seems a White House run is the next logical step for her career and as an American I for one can’t wait.

Since leaving Public Office, Sarah Palin has taken a major step in moving from Twitter to Facebook for her social networking.    The limited word count of Twitter made it very difficult for Sarah to express the complex thoughts in her head.   On Friday, Sarah Palin posted the following comment on her Facebook page, “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”

I can only say “Bravo” Sarah.  We Republicans will not stand for the euthanizing of unproductive members of society because we know that there but for the grace of God goes us.   I am sure that if this administration was able to put into law that those who are unproductive will die, Republicans would be high on the list.   This will not be tolerated.   I demand the President Obama publicly state that he will not kill Sarah Palin’s family.

As I watched the Sunday morning talk shows, I was apalled to see the reaction to Palin’s comments.  People called it “fear mongering” and sait it was proof that she couldn’t participate in a serious policy decision.   This is no nightmare scenario.   Don’t forget Sarah Palin was just Governor of Alaska and if anybody knows about how poor government run health care can kill people, it’s the person who was ultimately responsible for the programs designed to help the elderly and disabled.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the federal government has found “state programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life — taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom — are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve” and has blocked the state from signing up new people to these programs until major changes are made.  In a two and a half year period, 227 adults getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs.  Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment to see if they qualified for help.   The services are paid for by medicaid, but most of the work is performed by private contractors.  There are a number of lawsuits being filed against the state for their negligence.

Nobody knows more about the failings of government run health care than somebody who as governor has just miserably failed at providing government run health care.  Sarah Palin’s failure to adequate protect the life of the seniors of her state shows just how vulnerable her parents truly are.   Raising a child with special needs takes a lot of patience.  It is not an easy job for parents to take care of a child who doesn’t process things as quickly as the rest of us.  However, Sarah Palin’s parents did so and they should be respected for this.   Her baby also needs protection and in the name of human decency I call on President Obama to publicly state that he categorically will not kill Sarah Palin’s family.

[As I figured, NBC took the clip from Youtube.  You can now find it on Hulu]

I don’t know how long this will stay up, but it’ll probably move to Hulu.   Performance by the great William Shatner – Words by Sarah Palin

Usually, when I go a day without blogging, it means either I was very busy or I was working on something blog related. I was inspired yesterday to work on a Sarah Palin video. I went so far as to figure out how to get audio from Youtube (as well as video…just not together). My new computer does a great job of taking out vocals and I was going to use it to remove Billy Joel from Say Goodbye to Hollywood. Unfortunately, Billy Joel isn’t that easy to get rid of. When I burned the CD, there were his vocals. I tried a karaoke backing track, but it kept in too many backgrounds competing with my lyrics.

You guys definitely missed out. I will say, my singing voice is amazing. I have a 9 octave range and I consider myself one of the last of the great singer songwriters. Here are the song lyrics that I would have sung:

Sarah’s headin’ to Wasilla tonight
Left behind her spa class tanning bed.
Playing point guard on this team, call a screen
Higher calling’s what she said.
Say goodbye to Anchorage
Say goodbye, my baby
Say goodbye to Anchorage
Say goodbye you betcha.

Quitting’s not something easy to do
But the press has been so mean everywhere
She’s like MJ quitting the Bulls
When he decided baseball was his career
Say goodbye to Anchorage
Say goodbye, my baby
Say goodbye to Anchorage
Say goodbye, you betcha

Chorus:
Movin’ on is a chance you take
When you decide to run – for governor
You get one chance to run
Then you find that the chance you had
Is gone forever
Forever

So many people quit every day
Shelley Long
Comes to mind for leaving Cheers
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
You know Brett Favre retires every year.
Say goodbye to Anchorage
Say goodbye, my baby
Say goodbye to Anchorage
Say goodbye, you betcha

There’s a video of Billy Joel doing the original here, if you’re not familiar with the song. Needless to say, it was your loss.

I decided instead to make a montage, but between getting new blank CDs, finding pictures, editing, playing with a few new toys, and then dealing with Youtube’s obnoxious copyright policy where music is concerned, you’re looking at about 15 hours work. Phew.

Her speech was powerful as always even though myself and many others might not have understood her motivation at the time.  It may be easiest to put it into a sports metaphor and since Sarah is the ultimate hockey mom I think I’ll go with that.  When a hockey player has the puck and she’s skating towards the other goal, sometimes the other team will try and check her and when that happens she’ll want to pass the puck.   If no player is open she may do what is called dumping and chasing.   Where she passes the puck down the ice and attempts to retrieve it or have a teammate retrieve it before the other team gets to the puck.   However, when a player shoots thepuck across at least two red lines,  the opposing team’s goal line being the last, and a player on the other team other than the goalie touches the puck first it is called icing and the linesman will stop play and there will then be a faceoff in the defending zone of the team that iced the puck.   Of course this is all waved off if in the opinion of the referee the opposing team made no attempt to play the puck or the icing team was shorthanded.   Isn’t that just what Sarah Palin is doing?

Now for people who are perplexed as to what Sarah Palin is doing and calling her a quitter I say that Palin’s don’t quit things.  When Bristol became an unwed teen mother, the Palins weren’t about to abandon their fierce support of teaching abstinence only sex education.   When Todd accidentally signed up for the Alaska Independence Party instead of listing himself as independent, he didn’t quit.  Instead, he voted AIP for 7 years and Sarah Palin spoke at their convention.   When Sarah Palin was in college and decided Hawaii Pacific College, North Idaho College, University of Idaho, and Mantanuka-Susitna College weren’t right for her she could have dropped out.  Instead she  returned to the University of Idaho for her degree.   The Palins are nothing if not persistant.

There are several possibilities why Sarah could have dropped out of the race:

1. With Joe the Plumber announcing just this week that God told him not to run for political office, she saw the road to the White House as wide open now.

2. Billy Crystal of the Weekly Standard and City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold suggests that dropping out is Sarah Palin’s way of becoming a national Republican leader.  Afterall, of the current Republican leaders only Rush Limbaugh is fettered by a job.

3. This could be a preemptive resignation that would allow her to have an affair.  Most of Governor Sanford’s problems seem to arise from having an affair in office and this would give Governor Palin more freedom to play the field.  Todd seems like a great guy, but could anybody really tame her?

4. She’s been getting a lot of criticism while being governor of the largest state in the country and this move allows her to get away from the press and work on running for President in 2012 without the media spotlight of Anchorage.

5. This could be the first move in a gambit to pull Alaska out of the union.

Whatever her reason, Sarah Palin has made the right choice.  Her future looks very very bright.

T-Shirts like these are available at the Candies' Bristol Palin Abstinence Tour

I am really excited that Bristol Palin is doing an abstinence tour this summer.  I don’t think there is a better way to get the message across to young children that God doesn’t approve of sinful sexual behavior than by holding up her crying baby and proudly proclaiming to the audience that this could happen to you.  Best of all, its sponsored by Candies who you know will do an amazing job since they have experience promoting rock shows like Britney Spears’ current amazing Circus tour.  In fact, Britney and Bristol seem to be the new face of candies.  Together, they give girls the message that not having sex doesn’t mean not having any fun–afterall you can go pretty far without intercourse.

There has been some controversy after Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol’s child, called abstinence unrealistic and implied that the reason that Bristol got pregnant was that they never used birth control.  That’s possible, but that is certainly not the message we need to be teaching to our children today.

I feel relatively sure that my 13 year old daughter Emily will not be sexually active until she’s at least out of college and possibly longer.   I didn’t have to sit down and have a long talk with her or anything.  One day as we were leaving the self-storage facility I turned to her from nowhere and blurted out in my deepest most serious voice, “Emily, all I have to say is good girls don’t and bad girls do”.  She looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked,  “What do you mean?” and I replied “Exactly what I said”.  She nodded and I could tell we had a moment that will stick with her for the rest of her life.  It makes me feel better just to know that we’ve had the talk.

Now some people will tell you that Bristol Palin as an unwed teen mother makes no sense to be preaching practicine abstinence.   Practicing abstinence is something that girls need to do for their teen lives and the more you practice it, the better you get.  I’m sure that Bristol can be exactly the role model that kids need.  In fact, I have been thinking that Emily could do something similar on a local level.   Emily is chubby in fact at 5’7″ and 125 pounds, she’s really kind of a porker.  I have been wondering if we could get a local restaurant like a McDonalds or Subway to get her to go around and teach kids about healthy eating.   Just as Bristol’s child provides a lesson that words alone could not, my daughter’s weight problem could do the same thing.   This is definitely something to look into for summer.  In the meantime, you go Bristol!  You’re sexy enough to make the boys wait.

Today David Letterman officially apologized to Sarah Palin for the tasteless joke he made about her family.  The problem wasn’t that he was tasteless–we forgive tasteless comics all the time.   No, Letterman committed the ultimate sin for a comedian by not being funny.   I’m happy to be having a grand old time in the Grand Old Party where we have the quickest wits in the country to continually crack us up.

Take Michelle Malkin.   Most people, would find joking about the 9/11 terrorist attacks distasteful.  In fact Michelle tore into comedian Wanda Sykes for comparing Rush Limbaugh to the hijackers.   However, even terrorist attacks that kill thousands of Americans can be side splittingly funny to somebody with her gifted comedic touch.   Last Thursday, she ran a hysterical cartoon of one of the planes about to hit the World Trade Center.   I guess technically she got the cartoon from The People’s Cube originally, but you have to admit the woman knows comedy.   Reacting to a report, that terrorists would be read their Miranda rights under Obama as they were under Bush, the cartoon has photoshopped a word balloon onto the 9/11 plane to say, “Mohammed, shouldn’t we read them their miranda rights first? Just kidding man.”  I think I almost peed my pants when I saw it.

I can’t teach Letterman a sense of humor, but former Republican Senatorial Candidate Rusty DePass probably could.  He posted on Facebook this weekend about the escape of a Gorilla, by telling people, “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors — probably harmless.”   Obviously, comparing the First Lady to an escaped gorilla is comedy gold.

A hysterical email was sent out by a legislative staffer for Tennessee GOP state senator Diane Black.  The staffer, Sherri Goforth, e-mailed this composite picture of the country’s 44 presidents, which represents President Obama with only a set of eyes.   I posted the picture above.   It just goes to show you that even Republican chicks have a great sense of humor.

Of course the king of Republican comedians is Rush Limbaugh.   Perhaps, if Letterman would listen to Rush, he’d get a clue about what America finds funny.  Until he gets that figured out, his apology is beside the point.   This reminds me of the last words of my grandfather who said, “A truck…”

Sarah Palin has again emerged as a Republican hero.  She told the lawmakers in Wasington, “Thanks, but no thanks” on their education to nowhere.   Palin accepted only $530 million of the $914 million appropriated to Alaska as part of the recent economic stimulus plan.  The biggest chunk of the funding that she rejected was $160 million for education.

As Governor Palin  told reporters, “I told congress thanks, but no thanks on that education to nowhere.  It doesn’t take a lot of fancy book learning to drive a snow mobile or shoot a moose.  If the people of Alaska want our kids to learn something, we’ll teach them ourselves.”  Palin did accept the parts of the stimulus for programs to build bridges, roads, and aviation projects which she deemed far more useful.

Of course, we at Thatsrightnate.com enthusiastically cheer Sarah Palin as an opponent to wasteful spending on things like text books and vocational training.   You don’t need vocational training in Alaska just go find something to shoot and feed your family with it.   This was a wasteful spending project that would simply confuse Alaskans with a lot of book learning.  People forget that having attended 7 different colleges and universities, this is one governor who knows a lot about education.